Senators getting impatient with the FAA

[sar104]

FAA regulation on remote identification of drones is, not surprisingly, taking longer than was hoped:

https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Remote%20Indentification.pdf

 

[AMann]

Well, we all knew that was coming some day soon. Hope all the outlaws take heed and reign in their illegal flights or else we all will be owners of flightless bricks.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Well, we all knew that was coming some day soon. Hope all the outlaws take heed and reign in their illegal flights or else we all will be owners of flightless bricks.

Trouble is outlaws will keep flying, until the get caught and punished or financially driven (fined) out of whatever this concerns (just about any law or privilege you can name).
Only the good folk will really be punished in the main, with extra compliance, cost, inconvenience.
Laws and rules are for the law abiding.

 

[Thomas B]

Bad news, especially since the senators incorrectly cite unproven possible drone sightings like Gatwick. Don’t they realize that this type of erroneous reporting will continue.

I urge any of you guys who are constituents to contact the signees.

 

[sar104]

Bad news, especially since the senators incorrectly cite unproven possible drone sightings like Gatwick. Don’t they realize that this type of erroneous reporting will continue.

I urge any of you guys who are constituents to contact the signees.

I'm afraid that it's wishful thinking to imagine that the Gatwick event wasn't real. More importantly, it was clearly possible. That said, it seems more realistic to pursue technology that can disable drones rather than identify them.

 

[AMann]

“...it seems more realistic to pursue technology that can disable drones rather than identify them.”

Well it’s out there, and even the Iranians are pretty good at it.

 

[brett8883]

FAA regulation on remote identification of drones is, not surprisingly, taking longer than was hoped:

https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Remote%20Indentification.pdf

Right because people who intend to do bad things are gonna broadcast their name, address, and current location...

It’s like making a rule that everybody has to wear name tags so they can more easily identify burglars...

 

[sar104]

Right because people who intend to do bad things are gonna broadcast their name, address, and current location...

It’s like making a rule that everybody has to wear name tags so they can more easily identify burglars...

The drone likely is going to be broadcasting its location, unless it is on an autonomous flight, but whether it is readable or not is a different issue. And don't forget that much of this is targeted against incompetent or ignorant flying, which is probably going to be a lot more common (hopefully) than flying intentionally to cause damage or disruption.

 

[AMann]

The drone likely is going to be broadcasting its location, unless it is on an autonomous flight, but whether it is readable or not is a different issue. And don't forget that much of this is targeted against incompetent or ignorant flying, which is probably going to be a lot more common (hopefully) than flying intentionally to cause damage or disruption.

Both the drone and RP will be broadcasting their positions as well if in remotely controlled flight, but as you point out, if it isn’t readable the RP’s signals may be hard to separate and locate from background transmission sources.

 

[Thomas B]

Both the drone and RP will be broadcasting their positions as well if in remotely controlled flight, but as you point out, if it isn’t readable the RP’s signals may be hard to separate and locate from background transmission sources.

The DJI products broadcast this info now and DJI currently markets a device to read the info and location.

 

[Turn11]

identify them

Not being paranoid, just being realistic with the technology available.
I would not be surprised if the AC had the capability to squak its id number now, perhaps with a trigger.

 

[Thomas B]

Not being paranoid, just being realistic with the technology available.
I would not be surprised if the AC had the capability to squak its id number now, perhaps with a trigger.

It’s available, works with many brands of drone, and detects the drone ID for a distance of 50km plus a lot of other info on any flight.DJI is working both sides. Check it out:

Aeroscope - DJI

DJI AeroScope is able to identify the vast majority of popular drones on the market today by monitoring and analyzing their electronic signals to gain critical information, allowing users to protect the integrity of their flight-sensitive environment.

www.dji.com

 

[Cmeflydrone]

So the thinking is we are just a firmware update away from broadcasting an ID and RP location? The tech is already in place just flip a switch?

 

[Thomas B]

So the thinking is we are just a firmware update away from broadcasting an ID and RP location? The tech is already in place just flip a switch?

Both are already readable by the device in my above post from up to 50km and it plots the drones on a screen map. No drone programming needed. Reportedly NYPD has a few of the devices.

 

[AMann]

Both the drone and RP will be broadcasting their positions as well if in remotely controlled flight, but as you point out, if it isn’t readable the RP’s signals may be hard to separate and locate from background transmission sources.

So the thinking is we are just a firmware update away from broadcasting an ID and RP location? The tech is already in place just flip a switch?

The location of the controller and drone is broadcasted when the drone is flying, else functions such as distance, the maps and RTH won’t work.

 

[Vegasdad]

Trouble is outlaws will keep flying, until the get caught and punished or financially driven (fined) out of whatever this concerns (just about any law or privilege you can name).
Only the good folk will really be punished in the main, with extra compliance, cost, inconvenience.
Laws and rules are for the law abiding.

You are exactly right keeping the honest people honest.

 

[Paul2660]

I am curious enough to ask, considering the fact that the FAA has complained it can’t handle current air traffic (planes) due to lack of trained personnel, and up to date equipment, how are they going to track over a million or so drones, mostly making low flights, under 400 feet and many of these out in remote locations.

I feel that the FAA will push back enough to force a different decision altogether, ie. no more flights around populated areas. They already have rules and regulations for flights around major airports, etc which are broken on a regular basis.

The policy of tracking non 107 pilot flights would cause a huge cost in both computers, training and manpower. Who is going to want to be monitoring hobby drone flights all day long? And a computerized system is nowhere ready or even in the works, not to mention budgeted for.

I guess what will be forced eventually is the reining in of DJI and they will be forced to make changes to either drone firmware/software or both to no longer allow flights 1, past a much shorter distance, 2, in any populated cities, 3 with a much lower height restriction.

Yet folks still buy them, and continue to fly with little or no understanding of just what they are doing:

Taking off with a compass error,
Taking off and doing a flight over densely packed houses
Taking off with no home point set
Not fully understanding what ATTI mode is and what it means
Taking off from the hood of a car!
Flying over large crowds of people or along a crowded public beach

Same people odds are have no idea about physical liability issues if their drone crashed into a house, hit a person, or a car, etc and don’t carry any form of insurance for this, yet they continue to fly in high risk situations.

I am also sure that the average congressman, or woman, has no real understanding of just what a consumer drone is really capable of. Most I am sure feel that such equipment can be used to invade privacy of others, even when flights are at 250 feet up and as such the camera view of a person is a tiny dot, and the set resolution of the camera can’t begin to improve on this in post production.

Yet these same congressman and women feel it’s fine to allow Drone delivery companies to have free rein. But to be commercialized and make any money, the drone would have to be larger than an a Inspire, and make a lot of noise.

Thankfully, there are still a lot of spots in my state, that have limited to no population density and one can still make a 1 hour drive and enjoy flying. Hopefully this will remain available in the future.

Sadly, there will alway be someone who wants to fly outside the lines, and in the long run that type of behavior will ruin it for many, but not stop the folks wanting to fly that way as they can just build up a racing drone and fly it full ATTI mode.

Paul C

 

[sar104]

 

[drvrbob]

I am curious enough to ask, considering the fact that the FAA has complained it can’t handle current air traffic (planes) due to lack of trained personnel, and up to date equipment, how are they going to track over a million or so drones, mostly making low flights, under 400 feet and many of these out in remote locations.

I feel that the FAA will push back enough to force a different decision altogether, ie. no more flights around populated areas. They already have rules and regulations for flights around major airports, etc which are broken on a regular basis.

The policy of tracking non 107 pilot flights would cause a huge cost in both computers, training and manpower. Who is going to want to be monitoring hobby drone flights all day long? And a computerized system is nowhere ready or even in the works, not to mention budgeted for.

I guess what will be forced eventually is the reining in of DJI and they will be forced to make changes to either drone firmware/software or both to no longer allow flights 1, past a much shorter distance, 2, in any populated cities, 3 with a much lower height restriction.

Yet folks still buy them, and continue to fly with little or no understanding of just what they are doing:

Taking off with a compass error,
Taking off and doing a flight over densely packed houses
Taking off with no home point set
Not fully understanding what ATTI mode is and what it means
Taking off from the hood of a car!
Flying over large crowds of people or along a crowded public beach

Same people odds are have no idea about physical liability issues if their drone crashed into a house, hit a person, or a car, etc and don’t carry any form of insurance for this, yet they continue to fly in high risk situations.

I am also sure that the average congressman, or woman, has no real understanding of just what a consumer drone is really capable of. Most I am sure feel that such equipment can be used to invade privacy of others, even when flights are at 250 feet up and as such the camera view of a person is a tiny dot, and the set resolution of the camera can’t begin to improve on this in post production.

Yet these same congressman and women feel it’s fine to allow Drone delivery companies to have free rein. But to be commercialized and make any money, the drone would have to be larger than an a Inspire, and make a lot of noise.

Thankfully, there are still a lot of spots in my state, that have limited to no population density and one can still make a 1 hour drive and enjoy flying. Hopefully this will remain available in the future.

Sadly, there will alway be someone who wants to fly outside the lines, and in the long run that type of behavior will ruin it for many, but not stop the folks wanting to fly that way as they can just build up a racing drone and fly it full ATTI mode.

Paul C

You are absolutely right about our Congressman not having a clue on what drones can and cannot do. I representative Lance Gooden here in the state of Texas is an example of that. For kicks look at some of his statements and television interviews about drones you cannot buy this kind of entertainment.

 

[Deleted member 94307]

I’m sick of our politicians not educating themselves on the topic before creating more laws they can’t enforce. I guess they have no idea that the technology already exists that could ground us if we were in controlled air space. Other manufactures can use the same technology that DJI already uses that keeps us from flying when the president is overhead.. they could easily require other drone manufacturers to implement the same technology ..

Do you all realize that if your flying your drone and a TFR comes into effect , the DJI drone automatically lands? We have experienced this several times here in NJ thanks to our current president living here. You can’t even take off.. the same thing should happen if you are within the air space of a class b-d airport.